Good for you, keep up the good work!!

At first I thought you were saying that you literally fell of some piece of equipment! lol! Great that you are exercising! more people should. They'd have more energy, look better, and FEEL better. Regular exercise and drinking plain water would improve so many lives.

My primary forms of exercise are walking golf in "nice" weather and a Nordic Track ski machine in "bad" weather. :) I also started doing some basic yoga a few months ago and love it!

Good for you, Lucille. Regular exercise of some kind is so important to us, even more so as we age.

I am very fortunate in that I pay very little to belong to a top-notch fitness center, an emplyee benefit for my husband. Since I don't do very well sticking to a program on my own, the fitness center has been a real blessing.

I attend yoga classes twice a week, Pilates once a week, aerobic swimming once, and swimming on my own once per week. I'll hit the muscle equipment, too. Sounds like I live there, lol, but I get it all done in three or four days

PBS broadcasts chair exercises and basic yoga, so that there's a way for almost anybody to stay limber and to maintain some core strength.

Good for you. My nordic track doesn't see much action... except in the winter. Really, I hate exercising... but love riding my bike. I do exercise regular by swimming, as my arthritis doc said I need to, to keep moving. Sure wish, I could swim in a lake or river year round... so much nicer than the lap pool at the Y.

Moni

That's the beauty - you can always start again ;-) I miss it when we are gone for even a few days or a week... When I was out of action after surgery last year, it took so long to get back up to "normal".

It's so important for your wellbeing, especially the older you get. I've watched my SIL (2-years older than me) decline until she requires a walker or wheelchair, all because she was too lazy to move. The doctor had her put a pedometer on and she didn't even move 500 steps a day!!! Some days half of that. Now she has physical therapy to help build her muscles again, but it doesn't do any good if she's not willing to move any other time. She calls an ambulance several times a month to pick her up when she falls/collapses and can't get herself up. Believe me - this is not a good life at 65!

We exercise (including walking laps) in our basement at 4:00 a.m. 5-days a week. We have a strength machine, and different strength training things, stationary bike, and a mini-trampoline to keep it interesting (and you can purchase good quality machines at small prices if you watch for them). We do the "Five Tibetan Rites" - for healing, rejuvenation, and longevity. Another simple exercise as you get older is just to be able to stand on one leg with your eyes closed. Try it daily until you get really good at it. Helps greatly with balance and it should help prevent falls. We use some video workouts for the fun of it (found at thrift stores). For a real workout we go up and down the staircase, as recommended by our daughter's fitness expert guru, for people "our age" (LOL).

Years ago we had a Nordic Track and I destroyed my Achilles tendons on it.

-Grainlady

Good for you! That's the thing about activity (or exercise), it's always waiting for us to take advantage of doing.

You put me to shame, Lucille. I haven't taken the time to do regular exercise all summer, but have been gardening, active. My exercise bike is right behind me as I'm typing, only dusted the last many weeks.

At 88 1/2, my mom has gone to aquatic exercise classes at her Y five days a week the last 15 years. We've just helped her move to an independent living facility an hour farther south and while they don't have their own pool, they shuttle interested residents to one only 10 blocks away. I'm anxious for her to get settled and begin going to the new pool - it's been one week since she's been in the water and I know she misses it.

Morz,

I believe that exercise doesn't require machines. I have two just because it is easier sometimes especially when the weather is bad (and that happens a lot in the Houston area, I'm not going outdoors to exercise when it is over 100 degrees).

But gardening is good exercise. all that weeding, hauling debris, hauling out the hose to water, etc. Some housework is good exercise also. To me, going to the grocery store for a big shopping expedition counts as exercise because I haul all that stuff into the house, and with a few bags of cat litter, canned food, large containers of laundry liquid soap, a large shopping trip can easily mean 150 lbs of stuff to haul.

I'm going to begin bicycling again soon. This time, I'm going to map out safe streets. My area has unleashed dogs in unfenced yards. When I was young I could outrun them on my bicycle if they came after me, can't do that any more.

Good for you, Lucille. I find sometimes it's hard to get motivated to get going when a book/tv is calling out! But exercise is a wonderful investment in health and well-being. If someone could find a way to "bottle" it, they would make a fortune! I have been getting back into weightlifting sessions after taking the summer off (big mistake!) and I've been increasing my walking, due to the Fitbit I recently purchased. Initially I thought that this little gadget was a waste of money, but I'm loving it and am excited to feel it vibrating, signaling to me I made 10,000 steps that day

I hate to Exercise, I have a tread mill in the shed, a bike in my living room and my son added me to his gym membership. I finally went last week to the Silver Sneakers aerobic class, it was very easy but still tiring, but not too bad. I may go again this week. They do the water aerobics there but I hate getting dressed, wet then dressed again. Just lazy I guess.

Oh my grainlady.....I think I am your sister's sister by another mother! I am overweight and can't exercise....and hate the thought anymore. I have severe arthritis in every joint in my body....two hips and a knee replaced, two back surgeries amd live in constant pain! I tried the water exercise several times in different pools, but it is the same thing....the chemicals make me itch so badly and I scratch so much that my breasts actually bleed, even though I shower immediately.

When I had my first hip replacement, the surgeon put the joint in the wrong angle and killed the nerves in that hip.....it took me 6 years to finally find out what happened....too long to sue his butt! With every step, my hip caves in and my back aches terribly from the wabbleingI do. I have had about 60 sessions of PT and they have no answers....and I am not a candidate for a redo on the hip....without nerves, it would be useless. I get along pretty well in the house just doing housework as long as I do not do too much bending.

Before all of this mess, I walked 3-4 miles a day and danced 4 hours a night 2-3 times a week and the weight stayed off and I felt great. I so miss the old self...I certainly would like to have her back!

JoAnn, you have to keep up with it before it gets easy. Ideally, you should be doing some form of movement everyday.....even five minutes on your bike, five times a day. That's the ONLY way to get strong again.

I prefer to exercise the natural way. I like to walk, ride horses and ride a real bicycle outdoors. Swimming, skating, hiking. I used to like gyms before they became all about machines. I miss the old gyms that were more personalized. The ones you could join, do some floor exercise and a bit of weight training and then take a dip in the pool or go in the sauna. Yoga comes the closest I guess. But exercise in controlled environments like gyms and studios has become almost cult like. I don't care for extremism.

I'm in the Houston area too. I felt like a wimp this morning when I went for my walk. My ears got cold.

Exercise is so addictive. I miss it when I don't go. I walk two miles in the morning with my dog and my husband joins us for two more miles in the evening.

Watchmelol, I don't know where the heck you're from, but my fitness center is nothing but relaxed, fun, versatile, and friendly. Probably not a good idea to paint them all with the same broad stroke.

Good for you!!! The one weight loss action that worked for me was carbohydrate counting as taught to me by a dietitian. I can eat almost anything, but must limit the carb count per day. Its 160 gram for a woman and 180 gram for a man. This may be a bit severe, but the weight will melt away. I suggest that you try it for a week and then take a breather, but do not increase the carb count enough to gain weight. Its tough to design a balanced diet with this regimen, but it does help that you can eat meat products. The main problem I found was getting enough bulk to feel satisfied when first starting. I found myself eating more leafy vegetables than I had before. The hard part was cutting beans to minimum since these are loaded with carbs.

A potato has much carbs, but is slower to digest and will stick with you for a longer period. Do not partake of mashed potatoes or other potato dishes that have a lot of added stuff that subverts your effort. You can have a baked potato once in awhile. Be sure to include its carbs in your daily count. Eat the potato early in the day to stave off hunger pangs for several hours.

You may not be able to maintain strict carb limitation for a lengthy period. However, you will shed pounds during the carb restricted periods and it will teach your body not to gorge on carbs. Its the gorging that piles on the weight.

I would find it difficult to eat that many carbs! I do not eat fabricated, processed food of any kind, breads, baked goods, or sweets. My starchy foods consist of whole grains of various kinds, seeds, nuts, and legumes in small amounts. Carbs in my diet mostly come from vegetables and small amounts of fruit.

I'm on a low carb, moderate protein, lots -of-leafies,as-much-as-I-can exercise deal, instead of my former sedentary-too-many-fresh-delicious-muffins deal.

Everything in life is a trade, so the muffins have to go away until my new lifestyle is really a lifestyle and then the occasional muffin can reappear.

I agree with watchmelol's assessment of some exercise groups as cults, but I have to say that those cult sites have an amazing grasp of the minutiae of nutrition. I learn wherever I go, but no six pack abs for me:)

I cetainly " fell off the wagon" this year. I was exercising 5 days a week, eating mindfully (no sodapop or fast food) and had lost ten pounds. I've stopped exercising, put back 5 pounds. Today I'm re-starting my diet and exercise. Hope and optimism.

Ok, you made me feel guilty. Now I really have to get back on my walker. I never do any dieting, I just eat what I want in moderation. I lost 20 pounds a few years ago, but eating my dinner for breakfast and a light dinner, plus waling a few miles on my treadmill. I kept the weight off but now I see I'm starting to slack a little and put 4 pounds back on.

Congratulations, Lucille! It isn't easy to make new habits.

I have to get back on my StairMaster!

We recently added a yellow lab mix to the family, so doggie walks are more frequent and longer, and that's been a good thing.

Now, if I can only get myself to cut back the carbs!!!

"Now, if I can only get myself to cut back the carbs!!!"

Fortunately for me, I love to eat just about everything. So instead of focussing on the carbs I don't have, I look forward to the veggies, leafies and proteins I do have.

For some reason my garden is cranking out a lot of those Ichiban eggplants right now and I pick them when they are small and tender, they have been the basis for some wonderful mixed-vegetable-and-meat dinners.

lucille- I'm making a lot of vegetable purees to replace carbs like potatoes. Fortunately, I adore leafy green veggies, too!

Lost 10 more pounds for a total of 15. I'm sure some of the 15 is water, but the important thing is that I made a U turn and I'm going in the right direction now. Started weightlifting (small weights for now) and the stair stepper and stationery bike.

And I FEEL better.

For those who want to lose weight and get fit, I think especially as one gets older the important points is to progress a little at a time, and to treat the process like an adventure.

I check out different weight loss and exercise sites but I use common sense. Many are .coms and are trying to sell something. There are a TON of powders and pills being hawked to the unwary, but there is no magic snake oil you can buy, it is all exercise and forming new eating habits.

Wow! 15 pounds is a very impressive accomplishment. I bet you have a lot more energy, too. Congratulations!

Nice going, Lucille.

My cousin suggested that I start with lifting weights. He said, do not over do it; Work up to heavier weights as your muscles improve. He also suggested that I could use potatoes for weights. So, I bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes. The first week, I lifted the bag; Next week, I'll put a few potatoes in it.

I'm taking a new approach. I had a weightlifting set with a weight bench, but it was taking up half of a room and in my tiny house that was just too much room. So it is gone and in its place I have 3 sets of dumbbells in a large basket (light, medium, heavy) and an exercise program called Stack 52, a set of cards that illustrate and give info on a total body workout using only dumbbell weights. Less space, and the card method is kind of fun, keeps it interesting, you can shuffle the cards and deal yourself a new set of exercises every day.

The weights, along with dog walking and bicycling, make the road to fitness fun. I think the reason many people start and then stop exercise is that it gets boring, but if you have several things you like to do, you have the opportunity to choose what you feel like doing that day, and adjusting for bad weather/extreme heat or other reasons you may not want to do outdoor exercise.

I'm proud of you, Lucille. You're an inspiration.

Yes....I did the same thing with my gym. Lots to do, lots of variety.

It works Lucille!

Hoping to get back at it soon, knee is still hurting and I'm still saying no dr needed! After we get back from Tanners wedding if it is not better will break down and go to dr! Ugg! Aging bites!

Recent daily exercise activities:

AM:

6AM- Go on a 30 minutes tricycle ride with 2 of the dogs. There is an innovative attachment on the market that holds the leashes away from the wheel.

Shovel mulch for 30 minutes

Brush dogs for 30 minutes

PM:

Use new 'dumbbell playing cards' and exercise with the dumbbells for 30 minutes. Queen's 'Another one bites the dust' seems made to use as background music for weightlifting because of the strong rhythmic beat but there are a variety of 'workout' playlists available on Spotify. I'm not fond of a lot of rap songs, but some of them are pretty good as weightlifting background because of the beat.

It's too hot to do outdoor activities at all in the PM right now.